PgDip/MSc Energy Programme/Subsurface

Geological Time

Geological Time
Review
In this topic the student is introduced to how stratigraphic
structures can be related to geological time scales.

Content
Stratigraphy and Relative Time
Geologists deal with two types of time scales, relative and absolute.
Relative time is related to the order in which a specific sequence of
events has occurred, whereas absolute time is the actual time in years
from a specific point that such an event occurred. The concept of relative
time and its importance in geology was realised in the nineteenth century
when European geologists started to piece together series of events from
fossil records contained within rock strata. Although these geologists
could not measure absolute time, as no reliable methods existed, they
could relate events to one another.
Due to erosive and tectonic forces on Earth, the majority of rocks we see
are sedimentary. A sequence of sediments kilometres thick has
accumulated World wide over a length of time outwith normal
comprehension. Stratigraphy is the study of rock strata as a record of the
geological history of an area. The geological history can be interpreted to
show how an area evolved in terms of its plate tectonic setting through
time. The sorts of time scales geologists work with can be demonstrated.
For example, an accumulation of 0.1mm of sediment in one year would
amount to 1km of sediment in 1 million years. Until the 1960s and the
development of proper radioactive dating methods, the ages of rocks
were expressed in terms of named intervals of relative time, based on
relationships between these layers of sediments. Relative dating is based
on several basic principles:

law of superposition - a particular layer is younger then the one

beneath it and older than the one on top;

law of original horizontality water laid sediments are laid in strata

that are horizontal or near horizontal (even cross bedding is laid in
a horizontal series);

biostratigraphy - a bed can be identified by the characteristic

fossils it contains;

Layers of rocks can thus be mapped as formations and contain materials

that have the same physical appearance and properties (lithology). In
this way an individual bed may be recognised in widely separated
localities. This is however an imprecise science for several reasons:

sediments are not laid at uniform rates even locally, let alone
around the globe;

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Geological Time

the rock record does not tell us how many years have passed
between periods of deposition;

there is no way of knowing the relative ages of two similar but

widely separated beds.

The study of fossils (palaeontology) and the identification of

distinguishable fossil assemblages or sequences, known as faunal
succession, yields extremely useful information in stratigraphy. Care
must be taken as individual species may be present in different
formations and fossils present will also vary with the environment,
meaning that rocks in different places may therefore yield quite different
faunas. However, paleontology remains the most useful tool for relative
time scaling. Petroleum exploration commonly uses microscopic animal
fossils (micropalaeontology) or the spore and pollen from plants
(palynology). Table 1 shows the relative time scale.
Table 1. Relative Time.
Eon

Era

Period

Epoch

Origin of Name

Phanerozoic

Cenozoic

Quaternary *

Greek,
Visible life

Greek,
Recent life

Holocene
Pleistocene

Greek, Wholly recent

Most recent

Tertiary *

Pliocene
Miocene
Oligocene
Eocene
Paleocene

Recent
Less recent
Slightly recent
Dawn of the recent
Early dawn of the
recent

Mesozoic

Cretaceous

Latin, chalk, after chalk cliffs of

southern England and France
Jura Mountains, Switzerland and
France
Threefold division of rocks in Germany

Greek,
Middle life
Paleozoic
Greek, Old
life

Jurassic
Triassic
Permian
Carboniferous
Devonian
Silurian
Ordovician
Cambrian

Province of Perm, Russia

Coal-producing strata
Devonshire, English County
Silures, ancient Welsh Celtic tribe
Ordovices, ancient Welsh Celtic tribe
Cambria, Roman name for Wales

Proterozoic

Greek, Earlier life

Archean

Greek, Ancient

Hadean

Greek, Beneath the Earth. No rock record known on Earth

* Derived from eighteenth and nineteenth century geologic time scale that separated
crustal rocks into a fourfold division of Primary, Secondary, Tertiary and Quaternary,
based largely on relative degree of lithification and deformation.

Radiometric Dating and Absolute Time

Although early geologists attempted to age the Earth, all methods
devised were based on flawed assumptions, such as uniform and
constant deposition rates. It was not until the the development of

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Geological Time

radioactive dating that accurate figures could be applied to geologic time.

Radioactivity was discovered in 1896, and it was only 1905 when the
physicist Ernest Rutherford suggested that rock could be aged by the
levels of radioactive decay within them. This was the start of radiometric
dating.
If rocks contain suitable radioactive material, absolute ages can be
determined. Unstable radioactive parent isotopes decay to stable
daughter isotopes over a fixed average time (half life). For example, KAr dating measures the proportion of argon derived from the radioactive
breakdown of potassium. If we know the average rate of the decay
(which is constant with temperature and pressure), the amount of
potassium and amount of argon, we can work back in time and calculate
the age of the rock, or more exactly, the time at which pottassium was
first trapped in newly formed minerals. Table 2 lists the major radioactive
series used in geology today.
Table 2. Major Elements Used in Radiometric Dating.
Isotopes
Parent Daughter
Uranium 238

Half Life of
Parent (yrs)

Effective Dating
Range (yrs)

Minerals and Other Materials

that can be Dated

4.5 billion

10 million 4.6
billion

zircon, uraninite

1.3 billion

50,000 4.6
billion

muscovite, biotite,
hornblende, whole volcanic
rock

47 billion

10 million 4.6
billion

muscovite, biotite,
potassium feldspar, whole
metamorphic or igneous
rock

5730

100 - 70,000

wood, charcoal, peat, bone

& tissue, shells and other
calcium carbonates, water
and ice containing dissolved
carbon dioxide

Lead 206
Potassium 40
Argon 40
Rubidium 87
Strontium
87
Carbon 14
Nitrogen 14

Through a combination of examination of relative geologic time and

radiometric dating methods, scientists have been able to add numerical
time to the relative column (Figure 1). These dates are continuously
refined. For example, Precambrian time has recently been placed before
544 Ma rather than the more accepted 570 Ma. This is important
geologically as it relates to the most significant developments of hard
bodied multi-cellular organisms.
The oldest radiometric date found is in a sedimentary rock of
approximately 4.1 billion years ago. Therefore the rock cycle, and hence
the Earth, must have existed before this. Geological evidence suggests
that the Earth was formed at the same time as the Moon, other planets
and meteorites found within the solar system. Through radiometric dating
it has been possible to age both meteorites and dust brought back from
the Moon to approximately 4.6 billion years. By inference, the Earth is
thought to be this old. The oldest oil has been dated to around 3.2 billion

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Geological Time

years, indicating that single celled organisms at least were around at that
time.
Rocks nearly 700 million years old all over world show substantial glacial
deposits indicating that there was a huge glaciation 700-750 million years
ago. Paleomagnetism studies show correlation meaning that the entire
planet was covered by ice. It is thought that volcanic action is responsible
for the atmospheric changes needed for warming of the planet, a natural
green house effect, over a period of 50 million years or so. After this
period, evidence has been found to suggest that soft bodied animals
appeared subsequent to the thaw. Preservation of soft parts is extremely
rare so evidence is scant. Due to the development of hard bodied animals
about 544 Ma however, it is this relatively recent period in geological
terms that we know most about (Figure 2).

Figure 1. Geologic Column with Absolute Dates. (From THE DYNAMIC

EARTH by B.J. Skinner and S.C. Porter, copyright 2000 John Wiley and Sons. This
material is used by permission of John Wiley and Sons, Inc.)

Magnetic Polarity Time Scale

As mentioned previously, the direction of magnetic polarity of the Earth is
recorded in lavas as they solidify and crystallise. Sequences can be seen

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either side of diverging faults as the Earths polarity has reversed many
times throughout geologic time. The reason for these reversals are not
clear, but the fact that they happen provides us with a useful means of
correlation when dating rocks. Periods of normal polarity (with reference
to today) and periods of reversed polarity are termed magnetic chrons.
During each chron, several sub chrons, or small periods of reversal, may
occur (Figure 3).
Some sedimentary rocks can also form in a directional manner. If the
sedimentary grains are small enough and formed from magnetite for
example, which will have its own magnetic direction, they will align
themselves with the Earths magnetic field as they settle. The resultant
lithified rock will therefore have a weak magnetic alignment.
Magnetic reversal cannot be used alone to date rocks, as one reversal
looks like another, so additional information is required. Once a
continuous sequence is discovered however it is simply a matter of
counting backwards a technique used for dating oceanic crust for
example. In sedimentary rocks this technique has proved to be very
important due to its sensitivity. Once an approximate age is found based
on fossil records, magnetic reversal sequences can be used for much
more precise ageing. So good in fact is this correlation technique that
accurate sedimentation rates on the ocean floor can be determined.

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Figure 2. Geological Time. (From UNDERSTANDING EARTH by Frank Press and

Raymond Siever, 1998, 1994 W.H. Freeman and Company. Used with permission.)

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Figure 3. Magnetic Chrons (last 20 million years) and Layering in

Rock Records. (From THE DYNAMIC EARTH by B.J. Skinner and S.C. Porter,
copyright 2000 John Wiley and Sons. This material is used by permission of John Wiley
and Sons, Inc.)

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